Right. Better we sit back, do nothing and watch as they continue to kill and behead people. Sounds like a plan

That's right, we need battle hardened veterans who have been on the front lines and who won't take any guff. Men like Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. Best personal regards:

You mean we have real men left? Please let me know where? I do so have a soft spot for a real man, especially one who can make a decision. Oh the good ole days when men were Men

A-men to that sister!! :BigApplause:

Hey soul sister We should have a night out together and check out the real men. Maybe we can hit the military club, the gun club and probably even the softball fields. I do love those macho macho men

Yeah those tough guys like Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld! How may combined confirmed kills did they have in Vietnam again? Real men, who are not afraid to send others children and grandchildren into battle, and well, if some of them get killed that's just the price we pay for democracy. How many of their children and grandchildren paid the ultimate price in Iraq and Afghanistan again? Oh well, most of our volunteer troops are from poor and/or black families. They are expendable.

That's correct. We do have a volunteer military consisting of brave men and women who Want to wipe Isis off the face of the earth. Volunteer and geez our hero , the American sniper, don't recall him coming from a poor black family. Hmm. Thank God we do have so many brave men out there volunteering to serve. When exactly do you think we should kill them? When they start beheading in the U.S.?

Bush left ground troops there to train their army and then when Obama took office he promised to remove all combat troops from Iraq and that plus Obama not crossing the red line statement is the direct of Isis today. Another good job by obama

Personal Best Regards:

How many years has the US been training Iraqi troops, 12 or 13? Remember, "when the Iraqi army steps up, we'll step down"? How many times did we hear that mantra? Yet every time the Iraqi army gets a chance to step up, they strip off their uniforms and hightail it out of there.

Sorry - definitely off topic, but when you sign-off in this manner it seems offensive to me and I don't want to take it the wrong way if you mean it differently. I know that this is the customary sign-off of a gentleman that to me seems to be a kind and thoughtful poster. Could you please explain your intentions for doing this? I hope it is not to mock or try to confuse others on this forum, but I can't for the life of me think of any other reason. Please prove me wrong in my assumptions by your reply.

And as they run off like scared rabbits they leave their weaponry to whoever wants it first. What a waste of time and resources that training was. It was futile from the get go.

It was not futile from the get go as proven by how well they performed under the direction of American troops and advisors.

The obvious overlooked cause is that it was more important for Obama to pull the troops out to make a date than to assure success. There could have easily been a decision made to keep enough support there to assure continued success.

Shows lack of executive capability and displays in spades the political mind set.
As a result ISIS was given a free pass.

No. Do not blame the past and it's objectives. LAy the blame at the feet of the incompetent military understanding of the Commander in Chief....IN NAME ONLY.....not performance of duty.

Here's a little insight from National Review:

"It was disturbing — if not genuinely surprising — when earlier this year large portions of the Iraqi*army fled in the face of the advance of the Islamic State, allowing the group to take over large swaths of territory across the country’s northern half. Well, if you were wondering how hundreds of thousands of American-trained and -equipped troops can turn out to be so ineffective, one explanation is that 50,000 of them didn’t exist. Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: The Iraqi army has been paying salaries to at least 50,000 soldiers who don’t exist, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Sunday, an indication of the level of corruption that permeates an institution that the United States has spent billions equipping and arming. . . ."


BTW this has been going for a long time, years. I'll stick with futile.

No problem.
I will stick with what I have been told by vets who did in fact train the ones who existed. And who will be the first to state we pulled out the support too soon.